Manu is Manu for Spurs in Game 1 win over Lakers

Injured veteran sparks San Antonio to a Game 1 victory, looks healthy and could make the series short

SAN ANTONIO - Coming into the series, health was the major storyline for both the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers. If Manu Ginobili could play like his old self, the Spurs were the overwhelming favorites to end the series, and quickly. But if Manu was limited and it was instead Steve Nash who had his ailments disappear, the underdog Lakers would have the pendulum swing in their favor.

While it was only the first game of their best-of-7 series, if it is any indication of where these key players stand physically, then the Spurs will be coasting into the second round. Because not only was Ginobili back in uniform, he was back to being his old self.

"He was a huge spark for us," Tim Duncan said of Ginobili. "That's what we've always gotten from him. In the time that he's in there, he's been real effective, he's being real aggressive, and he's got his rhythm. He's doing what Manu does."

As if just being back wasn't good enough for San Antonio, Manu was the best player on the floor for the Spurs in game one, giving their offense a necessary boost while the rest of San Antonio's cogs struggled to get into a rhythm against an all-of-the-sudden tough Laker defense. While Parker was met at every turn by Steve Blake and Tim Duncan misfired on free throw line jumper after free throw line jumper, Ginobili's insertion into the game gave the Lakers a challenge that is impossible to prepare for: unpredictability.

Ginobili's creativity and precarious nature make him a terror to guard. If you make the incorrect read on Manu's intentions, there is no recovering from your mishap. No perimeter player in the league utilizes their headfake more than Ginobili, and it's incredible how much fear it puts into his defender. Manu often uses that headfake without ever considering a shot attempt, but because he's so fluent with his pull-up threes on the break, it is impossible for defenders to know if he's toying with them or not.

When Ginobili thrusts that ball into the air and hikes his leg like he would on any normal shot attempt, his man reacts like a puppy that was just let out of his cage, recklessly charging at him to dissuade a shot, not knowing that moment of desperation is exactly what Ginobili wants. Any time someone bites on the pumpfake, Manu uses the opportunity to drive right by his man, and when Ginobili's in the lane, he has infinite options within San Antonio's offense; depending on where the help comes from, Manu can kick to a shooter, find Tim Duncan at the elbow or in the paint or even drive himself. When Ginobili is aggressive like he was today, which was extremely important with Parker having an off game, San Antonio plays at a different level.

"(Manu) is a huge key with what we do," Parker said. "He has been here a long time and really knows our system and tonight he made some timely three's and was our energy off the bench. He looked great and was very aggressive."

"We are going to need that if we want to go far in the playoffs," Parker added.

A few years ago, a team coached by Mike D'Antoni with Steve Nash running point was putting up well over 100 points per game and scoring at efficiency levels that still hold supreme over almost every NBA offense over the past decade. So, needless to say, seeing the Lakers score 79 points on 41% shooting while making just three triples is a bit stunning considering who's in charge. This is what I expected, though, because slowing the game down and grinding out possessions is how the Lakers have been winning games since Kobe Bryant went down.

It must be said that Los Angeles did a tremendous job defensively against the Spurs in this game, though holding San Antonio to 38% shooting and successfully shutting down Tony Parker likely only make this loss hurt more for the Lakers since those two tasks are incredibly tough to replicate. You have to give credit to the Lakers, though, for reinventing themselves into a defensive minded team that pays a tremendous amount of attention to detail to what the offense is trying to do. Two months ago, the Lakers were routinely giving up wide open lay-ups to opposing point guards and their defensive rotations were often non-existent; yesterday, you could count the number of botched rotations and defensive mistakes on two hands, and the only time they fell apart defensively was at the end of the third quarter, which, consequently, was when Ginobili went on a tear that gave the Spurs a 13-point cushion to start the fourth quarter.

And once the Spurs had that cushion, their defense, which had been excellent all game, was able to keep the Lakers from making a serious push at a comeback. San Antonio was extremely physical and aggressive with Los Angeles, both in the paint and on the perimeter. Inside, Pop had his big men either fronting or aggressively shoving their off arm in front of Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol (and even Antawn Jamison for a stretch) to prevent Los Angeles from setting up their best players in positions to succeed. And if you've watched the Lakers at all this year, you know that a lot of their players struggle with placing the ball in the right spot when tossing the ball into the post, which is why so many times Duncan or Splitter or Bonner were able to knock the ball away as soon as an entry pass was made.

On the outside, the Spurs did a great job sticking with Los Angeles' guards off of screen-and-roll action, and when Steve Nash or Steve Blake did create separation, they simply weren't able to knockdown their shots. Nash was just 6-of-15 from the field in this game, and almost every one of those shots were mid-range jumpers we've seen Nash bury at an elite clip for the majority of his career. San Antonio's guards, mainly Tony Parker, Danny Green and Cory Joseph, did a good enough job sticking with their man that San Antonio's help defenders were able to stay at home with the Jodie Meeks and Antawn Jamison, which explains why the Lakers shot just 3-of-15 from deep. And with Gasol struggling to hit the 18-foot jumper that Los Angeles' pick-and-roll attack was consistently producing for him, there was no chance for the Lakers to keep pace with the Spurs once they had a lead, let alone catch up to them.

Before the game, Gregg Popovich said he expected Manu to play around 25-30 minutes in this game, but Ginobili only ended up playing 19 minutes in this contest, which makes the fact that he was the difference in the game that much more incredible. Ginobili had 18 points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals, and though he missed a few lay-ups that he normally makes, he was 3-of-5 from three, which give him as many three-point field goals as the Lakers had as a team in this game.

While he could have elaborated about how well he played and why he was able to make such a difference, Ginobili simply said he was happy he made it through the game without suffering another injury.

"I'm very happy that I played the whole game, that I didn't get hurt and that I scored a little bit," Ginobili said.

Scoring a little bit is an obvious understatement, but that's the status quo response after a big game in San Antonio's locker room. Since Ginobili won't pour the credit onto himself, I will. While these numbers are a bit hard to swallow given the fact that it was a 19 minute sample size, it's worth noting that the Spurs scored 131.3 points per 100 possessions when Ginobili was on the floor compared to just 67.9 points per 100 possessions in the 29 minutes Manu wasn't in the game. The Spurs could not buy a bucket even when they had their stellar starting line-up of Parker/Green/Leonard/Duncan/Splitter on the floor, and yet their offensive production managed to increase substantially when Ginobili was on the floor with Cory Joseph, Gary Neal, DeJuan Blair and Matt Bonner. This just goes to show how influential a player Manu can be when he's at his best.

"It was great to have Manu back," Pop said after the game. "He does what he does. He makes big shots. He creates problems for the opponent and he's got a great will, a great desire."

If you think you've read that quip about Ginobili doing what he does more than once, that's because it's usage was commonplace around these parts yesterday. Even Mike D'Antoni joined in on the act when he was asked about Ginobili making such a big difference in the second half.

"Well, that's what (Manu Ginobili) does, and he's good at it," D'Antoni said.

That particular phrase is usually invoked when someone deems it unnecessary to go into detail about something that happened because he's so used to seeing it, which makes perfect sense when the subject is Manu Ginobili coming up big on a big stage. We've seen these kind of games so frequently from Ginobili that the only time you'll find someone saying something interesting about him is when he fails to deliver; post-season success is an expectation for Manu, and he's lived up to those expectations so often that all anyone can do to describe his decisive performance in game one of this series is repeat some iteration of an empty and yet incredibly meaningful phrase.